Food allergies in children appear to be on the rise. Although close family members are typically aware of a child's food allergies and associated limitations, there are instances when food allergy information of a particular child is not properly communicated to others who may be responsible for the care of a child over a temporary period of time (e.g., teachers of a child with an allergy; parents of a child's friend; relatives of a child with a food allergy who do not live with the child). Compounding the problem is that children and other dependent individuals with allergies often may forget to advise a caregiver of an allergy, potentially leading to calls for an ambulance, hospital visits and/or use of an Epi-Pen.
Existing means to avert unintentional exposure to allergens are deficient in many respects. Although many are designed to warn of allergens, they are not entirely effective. Table 1 below demonstrates the effectiveness of various prior art measures for issuing allergy warnings to third parties:
TABLE 1Prior Art Warning and Protection Measures and FeaturesVerbalTemporaryNo-TechFeatureWarningT-ShirtTattoo/StickerBraceletVisual AlertNYYY“Cool” forNNNYKids/TeensAlways AppropriateNNNYCustomize to AnyYNNNAllergyChild SpecificYYYNInformationProtects PrivacyYNNYGives EmergencyNNYNInformationConstant ProtectionNNNNProactive AlertNNNN
Existing wearables or trinkets which visually communicate allergy information are often inadequate to serve the needs of dependent individuals with allergies and the caregivers or other individuals that need to be aware of them. For example, t-shirts, bracelets and temporary tattoos that incorporate a prominent visual representation of a peanut and/or the word “PEANUT” are often not entirely effective in communicating information necessary to avert an unwanted reaction to an allergy. In particular, these warning measures do not communicate whether the individual is extremely sensitive to peanuts and can be affected by airborne allergen exposure, or whether that same individual is only sensitive to peanuts when they are ingested.
Moreover, prior art measures of warning and protecting against allergen exposure are generally passive. All rely on constant verbal reminders and/or ineffective visual reminders. None provide a proactive alert system for keeping caregivers and other individual advised of an allergy.
Based on these drawbacks and deficiencies, there is an urgent need for an allergy protection and warning system that automatically and wirelessly communicates complete food allergy information and does not rely on the verbal communication of allergy information by a dependent individual to a caregiver. There is also a need to implement preventative measures in schools, amusement parks, airports and other establishments with children so that exposure to allergens can be limited. Thus, there is a need to limit exposure by utilizing wireless communications so that allergy information can be communicated amongst individuals (i.e., between individuals with allergies and others) even when they do not know one another and/or are not otherwise aware of the other's presence.